NCJ Number
79053
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 50 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1981) Pages: 7-13
Date Published
1981
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Personal, occupational, and familial aspects of human development are examined generally and specifically as they affect the police officer and his/her family.
Abstract
A balance must be established and maintained between an individual's development in the personal, occupational, and familial areas of his/her life if the multiplicity of human psychosocial needs are to be met. This is a difficult task, since problems in one of these areas are often avoided through overcompensation in one of the other areas; for example, a new officer's emotional involvement in occupational adjustment and idealistic images of his/her new profession may usurp the time and emotional investment required to develop a satisfying intimacy and companionship within a new family. Further, adjustments to the stresses at work may prove damaging to the development of closeness within the family. In order to cope with frequent encounters with criminal behavior, citizen hostility, and human suffering, officers often become aloof, detached, and highly controlled in their emotional lives. This coping pattern does not serve well the need to share feelings, vulnerabilities, and compassion in relationships with a spouse and children. Problems in the job may also cause an officer to develop an overly dependent and demanding relationship within the family, in order to have needs not met at work totally within the family. Problems and coping tactics in each dimension of development must be addressed within their own context, but not in such a way that they handicap satisfying development in other dimensions of life. Thirty-one footnotes are listed.